New Years giveaway

[ray1970]

Winner announced in post #41. Thank you all for participating.



Mods, if this isn't the proper place to post this I apologize and feel free to move it. Didn't want to clutter up the trading post with everyone's s posts.


I am giving away a like-new Magpul MOE SL stock with a like-new six-position mil-spec buffer tube. (Will get a picture up later)


Now the catch.


Rather than the usual "pick a number" type giveaway, I want to be entertained. So..

Tell a brief story about how you met the love of your life (sorry, single guys) or maybe an amusing or heartwarming moment about your significant other that made you realize he or she was that special one.


I will pick a winner this Friday based purely off of who's story I find the most interesting.


Good luck and happy New Years.

[wyome]

Coed city rec volleyball game...I spiked this really nice looking girl in the head with the volleyball, she couldn't block me! Then I went under the net to help her up and introduced myself...been together ever since

[Great-Kazoo]

My friends sister. spring of 74, Got in my face over something one of her friends said i said. Who knows what it was due to me consuming a few Carlsbergs (or what ever the beer of the day was) and tequila. As she's ranting the law rolls in to the park with intent to cuff everyone at the party. She grabs me and says lets GTF out of here. Run to the area behind another friends house. Too hammered to get over the fence, she grabs my feet as i'm floundering on it. Gives a good heave and throws me over.

[Love4] That was 45 years ago.

[cstone]

I had gotten off active duty about six months earlier and gone back to college to finish my degree. Sitting in a PoliSci class and I had learned to always sit up front and not in the back of the classroom. Almost no one ever sat in the front because no one wanted to be noticed or called on. It was a PoliSci class and I was a History major so the reading for the class was easy and almost every answer was simple to BS, so I had no problem being called on or participating when asked. About the third or fourth class and I noticed a very cute red head sitting next to me in the front row. I had never seen her before and we had an assignment to do some evening so I asked her if she was interested in working together.

Turns out she moved to the front of the class because she liked the sound of my voice...almost as much as I like hearing myself talk.

30 years, three kids and two grand kids later and she still listens to me talk...at least I think she is listening.

[Robb]

Texas panhandle, Picked up up a senorita in a bar, didn't have a damn thing in common. This past Sept 5 was our 30th anniversary.
Still don't have a damn thing in common, but we're making it work.

[Double00]

Introduced by a mutual friend at a country bar. 20yrs. of awesome!

[Tim K]

My mom met my wife on a job interview. Mom was overqualified and didn't get the job, but came home pretty impressed with the girl. She taped my future wife's business card to my desk with 6" packing tape and harassed me for a month to call her. I finally did call just to shut her up.

We went on a blind date and were engaged four days (3 dates) later. We've been married now for 27 years.

My mom has to go to the chiropractor periodically for the pain she suffers from constantly patting herself on the back.

[bczandm]

In college there were 40 guys on our floor in the dorm. Each night someone would head out and pickup fast food for the group, bringing back orders that were placed by other dorm residents. My roommate and I always chose Arby's because we could use discount coupons and get free food for ourselves with the BOGO offers. We walked into Arby's at 9 or 10 PM one night and ordered 30 or so sandwiches which seem to catch the attention of the entire staff, but especially the people waiting behind us. We received our order, but instead of heading back to the dorm we sat down and began to eat. The two girls behind us ordered and sat down right next to us. I thought the taller one was pretty cute and talked with her briefly, but shortly thereafter we packed up the remaining food and headed back to the dorms. A few days later I noticed the cute blond at the dorm. I spent the next several weeks going to the floor parties on the girls’ side of the dorm trying to find her, but had no luck. After failing to find her for several weekends I was sitting in the lobby area feeling sorry for myself, waiting for movie night to start in the adjoining atrium. I figured I might run across her there, plus I could see if she passed through the lobby area. So, I am sitting in this large area, likely 100 seats with 15 or 20 other people. Lots of empty seating. Someone sits down right next to me....yup :) It seemed that she was going to the parties on the guys side looking for me. That was 38 years ago, 1980. Best thing that ever happened to me.
Twenty-three years later I took my wife and several couples out for our 20 year wedding anniversary dinner....to the same Arby's of course!

[Bailey Guns]

We were stationed together at Offutt, AFB. We worked in the Special Projects Branch...aka "The Vault"...but on different teams. I was on the rebound from a divorce. She had never been married.

She'd caught my eye but I didn't have much chance to talk to her except at shift change. Just whatever small talk I could manage intermixed with a shift-change briefing...and you can't really get to know someone too well 5 minutes at a time. I was very interested in her but wasn't getting the "I'm interested in you, too" vibe. I'd learned a few details about her...she was stationed in the Springs at the Academy prior to coming to Offutt and she bought her first car there...a Subaru sedan. That's what I had to work with.

One day after the end of my shift I bought a card and a flower...maybe a carnation or something like that. Now, imagine a parking lot the size of Mile High Stadium (or whatever it's called now) and full of cars. I started near the building where we worked but knew it wasn't likely she was able to find a space that close in. I drove up and down aisles in that lot for about 45 mins looking for what might be her car. Finally I found a little, brown Subaru with a Nebraska tags...but it had a Colorado Springs dealer sticker on the back. Nothing inside shed any light as to the owner. I took a chance and wrote a clever little note on the card asking her out for dinner. I said something like, "and if this car belongs to some big, hairy guy, nevermind."

Next day she came in to work carrying the flower with a big smile on her face. Now she was interested. That was 1988. I can still make her smile, but not like that...I think all of my material is getting old and that was pretty hard to top.

Wedding Day, Oct 22, 1989...1 year anniversary of our first date:
https://i.imgur.com/4TDcxNE.jpg?2

[20X11]

Damned hard to top some of these, but here is the story....met my wife at work... car dealership in Brighton...she was a "greeter"... her job was to greet people on the lot and then find a salesperson to help them. I was a salesman, but preferred to pick and choose my own customers. She literally went to the GM and tried to get me fired every day for the first 4 months of my employment because every time she told me it was my turn, I had something else to do. She was married at the time, but he was a dirtbag and treated her like shit. Well, the company Christmas party came around, and her dirtbag husband wouldn't come to the party, so she brought her grandmother. I spent most of the evening entertaining and dancing with her grandmother (lovely woman, god rest her soul, who loved bourbon...ordered bourbon and water with a shot on the side...Jim Beam). Just after the new year, she filed for divorce, and we started dating. Been together ever since...29 years. I'm her 3rd husband, she is my first...only...and last wife.

[BPTactical]

Awesome stories.
Mine is pretty boring, she used to run the Farmcrest milk store @ 25th and Federal. I used to buy my gas there.
35 years later and here we are.

[Rooskibar03]

We were both on the same political FB page back in 2012. Had some common interests but never met or talked. She lived in AZ and We exchanged funny memes about bacon and Atkins diets over the years. Fast forward to 2014 and my parents move to AZ so I reach out and ask advice area related things for them.

Fast forward again to early 16 and she’s looking for help buying a car. We get to talking, it turns “friendly” and there is an attraction that forms, 900 miles away. Well my folks happen to be in town and they are driving back to AZ. Being the great son I am I volunteer to help them drive home on my day off and I’ll just catch a flight back to Denver.

Drive 900 through the night and they drop me at the airport for my 1pm flight. Well I actually wasn’t leaving until 6. I meet her next door at a hotel bar. We have a couple drinks and somehow I convince her to move around the table next to me. I find a reason to put my hand on her leg and well, the rest is history. Every trip down there we made time to visit that bar and somehow sit st the same table. Waitress eventually recognized us and we told her the story, drinks were on the house that time.

It started a long distance relationship with the woman I always knew I wanted but hadn’t met yet. It’s been a challenge for almost two years but in less than two weeks I’ll be down there permanently. She loves my daughter like her own and her 3 boys are a blast to hang out with. Gonna go full Brady bunch but it will be great.

[babarsac]

I was living about a mile from Arlington National Cemetery with a couple guys. We all decided to join a kickball league that would play in front of the Capitol building on the DC Mall.

After the games all the teams would walk to a local bar. It was there that a girl was yelling how awful I was at flip-cup.

As a result I decided to ask for her number and called her the next day.

Got married in 2013

https://farm1.staticflickr.com/442/32214236395_72c08b5eff_z.jpg (https://flic.kr/p/R5Eo9T)

[Gunner]

Not married yet but met my fiancé back in 2013 she was a bridesmaid I was a groomsman we talked a bit at the wedding nothing crazy, a year later we went to a birthday party and started talking there went out on a few dates became official shortly after, fast forward to 12/12/17 we got engaged and now we’re working on planning the wedding for sometime late summer.


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[StagLefty]

Still looking [ROFL2]

[BladesNBarrels]

Great stories. Can we vote?

I went back to CU in Boulder in 1970, after 5 years in the Navy, on the GI Bill. Back then $135/month for everything - tuition, room and board, books, etc.
After working odd jobs and full time school, I was living in an apartment at the Harvest Manor.
Tuition time and I needed cash, so I was selling my freedom machine - Honda CL 360 motorcycle.
A young lady I had admired from afar was on the balcony above the parking lot watching me show the bike to a potential buyer.
After the buyer and I reached agreement, she came out the front door and asked if I wanted a beer.
Hell yes! We sat on her balcony and watched my motorcycle disappear down the road. She asked if I was dry.
42 years later she is still asking and I am still sitting with her on the balcony loving life.

[SamuraiCO]

Both of us went to high school together. She was dating a good friend who was a senior at the time we were juniors. They broke up before prom and I was told by friends she wanted me to ask her out. We went to our junior prom then she got back together with her ex. When he graduated and went off to college they broke up again. We started dating then and went to our Sr. prom as well.

After graduation she rented her great grandma house with a friend (who was in the class behind us). Her ex who was and still is a good friend of ours started dating her room mate. We had a lot of fun jamming in one of the empty rooms upstairs. The stairs were so narrow we had problems getting our amps up there but prevailed.

When I was ready to go off to pharmacy school I was planning on staying in the dorms and pledging for a frat for the big college experience. Without telling me she applied to college, got in, arranged for financial aid and surprised me with all this info. I knew I wanted to marry her so my plans were changed. I went off to Alaska for the summer to work. She stayed behind and planned the wedding, honeymoon, got an apartment and moved in our stuff. I came back, got tuxes, got married, honeymoon, back to our new apartment and Monday morning started pharmacy school newly married at 21. WTF.

That was 31 years ago. BTW her ex and her room mate still married as well and still great friends of ours. Looking forward to spending more time seeing them. Good times.

[wctriumph]

I was kind of dating the sister of a good friend, she was actually seeing me on the side as she was, unbeknownst to me, already engaged to some guy named Carl. Anyway, she came by the house one afternoon to say hello and brought her cousin Susan with her. After a little while I started talking to Susan and we hit it off real well. When they left, I told myself that I wanted to see her again.
I did not see or hear from Susan again until Lori called me up and invited me to a New Years party she and her fiance were throwing. Since I did not like Carl, I declined. Lori told me that Susan would be there and that I should come. I declined again as I did not want to seem too interested. I showed up anyway and had a great time and Susan and I talked again for awhile. At about 10:30 we were out of beer so me and my friends Ken and Kenny went to get some beer. While I was gone another friend of mine, Randy was trying to put the moves on Susan. She was polite but seemed to like him so I backed off and left it alone. At midnight, we were all sitting around the dining room table getting ready to toast the new year and Susan came in and noticed all the chairs were taken. She remarked that there was no place to sit so I offered her my lap and so did Randy. We were sitting next to each other and Susan walked up, Randy slapped his thigh and I just looked at her and shrugged. She sat on my lap and Randy went bananas, and everyone else told Susan that she made the right choice.

At midnight we kissed and we have been together ever since, almost 40 years ago and we have one daughter. She is my rock and has stood by me through everything, good and bad. Without her I would have either gone to jail or been killed as I was on the wrong path. She saved me for sure.

[Ronin13]

December 2013- I had just graduated the Academy a couple days prior, and went out with some friends for a dual celebration our friend's birthday and my graduation. The girl who's birthday it was invited a few girlfriends from work. After having a few drinks and gathering up the courage, I started talking to the one of her friends I didn't know. According to her I was pretty well buzzed, and somewhat obnoxious (but not to the point where she lost interest). We danced, and got to know each other. At the end of the night I asked her out on a date the following week, she accepted and we exchanged numbers. She almost cancelled on me, but her friend told her "You're an asshole magnet, he's a really great guy. Take the date!" She did, and we've been married for almost 2 years.

[Joe_K]

I proposed to my wife on a beach on the Puget Sound in Washington State prior to deploying to Afghanistan. I had the ring, the campfire, food, sleeping bag [emoji6],everything.

I popped the question, gave her the ring, she said yes. We go to sleep in our tent. 6 hours later we wake up in half a foot of seawater. I had never camped there before and did not think to check on the tides, anyway the tide came up especially high and I didn’t plan for that. So we collect our soggy belongings, abandon our tent and slosh to my car. The road down to the beach had a dip that was below tide level and it appeared to only have 3 or 4 inches of water covering it. Do we sit in our car soaked to the bone and wait for the tide to recede? Or drive to my now fiancé’s sisters house? Well we picked option B, and end up sinking the car in 3 feet of Pacific Ocean. Of all days to do this, the morning hours of Christmas Day was not the one, spent an hour in the back of a Sheriff Deputy’s patrol car waiting on the AAA tow truck.

I wouldn’t rather be with anyone else, my wife has stuck with me through much worse than almost getting hypothermia together that Christmas morning, and has given us two beautiful children. We both bit the bullet and got legally married last March here in Colorado. https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180102/4230952117d46994dd18fde1dfcf6962.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180102/40414896c0160cd7daf703eb36f82d15.jpg

To this day when we call the repair shop that fixed my car they still answer “ Is this the Civic that swims?”

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[hurley842002]

Met my wife at "The Glenn" in Northglenn, we exchanged numbers and started talking a bit. On our third time hanging out, we opted to go for a drive, so we could just talk and get to know each other a bit more, she drove and we took her car. I had zero familiarity with Northern Colorado, as I'm not from the metro area, and was living in Parker most of my time here, but she took us to Estes Park for a bit, to check out the Stanley, and then off we went on the rest of our drive. As we continued on our drive, I started to get the feeling she had no idea where she was going, so of course being the man I am, I hesitantly inquired, and to my surprise she responded calm but cheerful "No, I haven't a clue, but I'm enjoying our talk, so just go with it", I'm thinking to myself "Nice, a woman with an adventurous heart, and she's not completely bored by my company". As we continued I had a clinger in my nose that I couldn't leave alone, so I pretended to look out the passenger window while trying to rid my nostril of the annoying bugger, to my dismay, she caught me, but her next response sealed the deal: Her "Are you picking your nose?", Me: "umm maybe", Her: "Don't be ashamed, pick away". We ended up at the St. Malo Catholic church on HWY 7, where I thought to myself "I'm going to marry this woman here someday". We didn't end up getting married there, but it was at that moment I knew she was the one for me, yup, only 3 times hanging out. We now have 2 handsome young boys, and are happy happy.

[Irving]

Fun fact: The Glenn refuses to get an ATM.

[mattiooo]

About 14 years ago, I flew to England to tour castles along the North coast of Wales. I was visiting Caernarfon Castle ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caernarfon_Castle ) and looking at a diorama of what the castle looked like when it was first built. I bumped into this English girl and we started chatting. After a 4 year long-distance relationship, I tricked her into coming to America and marrying me. We've been married for 10 years and have 2 kids.

[sellersm]

Met my wonderful wife in the nursing home!! Really! In 79, while a senior in High School, I started working at a nursing home in the nearby village of Gerry, NY (home of the famous Gerry Rodeo!). I met this wonderful young lady who was one of the strongest girls I'd ever met (she grew up on a farm)! While on breaks, she would practice self-defense on me! I really knew she liked me when I was working one evening, sick as a dog with a fever of 104 and when our shift was over around midnight, we'd had about 2 feet of snow fall: and she cleaned my car off completely for me! She was the first and only girl I've ever kissed. We were married in '83. I thank God for her all of the time, she's a precious gift and a true Proverbs 31 woman of God!

Fun fact: my Dad now lives on the campus of the same facility as the Gerry Homes nursing home where my wife & I met...

These are great stories, thanks for asking!

[SideShow Bob]

I would Tell you how we met, but Bert said he wanted to keep it in the closet...... Ooopps.
























I am kidding, you said you wanted to be entertained....... [Tooth]

[henpecked]

Sideshow Bob and Bert for the win..

[sniper7]

My printer at home broke, so had to go to the high school where my dad taught. He was the golf coach as well and told the cutest blonde on his team who needed some help to ask me if I was free to help her out over the weekend as he was gone. I was the #1 golfer the year before (my senior year) so apparently she knew who I was but I didn’t know her, I just knew she was hot when I was at the golf course practicing.
Of course I obliged to helping her....we set up a couple times to meet at the course and to play/practice.
That night I was supposed to go on a date with my current girlfriend but we had been struggling, and she cancelled on me for the last time. I paid a decent amount of money for really good nuggets tickets, So I called up the golfer girl to see if she wanted to go. Dated all through college, married after she finished college and happily married ever since with 2 awesome boys!

[00tec]

I was dating her best friend when we met. I (and a friend) gave her a ride home one day after school. My buddy was trying to talk her into a date, to which she replied that she didn't want to date anyone with "attachments". (Kids, baby mama drama, etc.) He had a kid. I piped up and said that I was in the clear for all that.
Her- "What about Jessica?"
Me- "All it takes is a phone call"
Her- "Really?"
Me- Makes phone call

That was almost 14 years ago.They are still friends. Jessica ended up dating my roommate for a few years.

[spqrzilla]

Yeah .... I'm not gonna win this.

[gnihcraes]

1987, working at Elitch Gardens (old one), was on the "Rides" crew.

New girl in the bunch, asked her to sit with me before our shift since nobody else was being friendly with her.

Got to know her as we cleaned up puke together and kicked drunk patrons from the rides in the park.

Offered to take her home many nights so she didn't have to ride the 38 bus at midnight.

She only was in town for summer work to help pay for college, back she went in the fall and eventually dumped me. We met back up in the next spring when she was in town again. Pretty much been together ever since.

Married 26 years, couple of kiddos.

Photo from those young days...

73021

[ray1970]

Man, you guys are making this tough.

Lots of good stories.

[BPTactical]

I would Tell you how we met, but Bert said he wanted to keep it in the closet...... Ooopps.
























I am kidding, you said you wanted to be entertained....... [Tooth]


And you probably wondered why I never bought you a watch honey...








....there's a clock on the stove!
Now get your fat, hairy ass back in there and make me a sammich............ bitch!

[SideShow Bob]

[LOL][LOL][LOL] !!!

[ChadAmberg]

So I was on Backpage looking at the escort ads, picked up the phone and... oh wait.

Met the Mrs's at Rocky Horror Picture Show. I was part of the cast, though not saying what part.

[Great-Kazoo]

So I was on Backpage looking at the escort ads, picked up the phone and... oh wait.

Met the Mrs's at Rocky Horror Picture Show. I was part of the cast, though not saying what part.

A TOAST ! Janet or Frank n Futer ?

[Rucker61]

I met her on her second date with my best friend. I was immediately attracted, and although she had fun with Paul, she was intrigued by the "bad boy". A month or so later an old flame of his shows shows up. He's not sure whether to keep dating this girl or the new one. My sage advice was to immediately dump the first girl, in a nice way of course, and pursue the new one. They break up, she shows up at my house ( did I mention we were pretty good friends by this point) crying, and I offer my heart-felt commiserations.

Four month later we were engaged. That best friend performed part of the wedding ceremony. The new girl eventually married another of his friends. He's thought about offering this as a service.

[ray1970]

I will be re reading the posts in the morning and will announce the winner. I will be happy to drop the stock and buffer tube in the mail if meeting up with the winner is inconvenient for either of us.

[OneGuy67]

The wife and I had been dating for about 6 months when I had an accident on a bicycle while on duty. I went over the handlebars and put my hands out to catch myself and ended up fracturing both elbows. I was in dual casts and unable to feed, dress, wash, or...other things myself. She moved in to help me out for a few weeks. I knew then that if she was willing to wipe my backside, she was the one!

[Irving]

The wife and I had been dating for about 6 months when I had an accident on a bicycle while on duty. I went over the handlebars and put my hands out to catch myself and ended up fracturing both elbows. I was in dual casts and unable to feed, dress, wash, or...other things myself. She moved in to help me out for a few weeks. I knew then that if she was willing to wipe my backside, she was the one!

This is one of the most impressive things I hear of wives doing, and yours did it before she was your wife. Wow.

[mattiooo]

This is one of the most impressive things I hear of wives doing, and yours did it before she was your wife. Wow.

When I had my stroke, I don't think my wife planned to check me out of rehab until I was able to do that. She was not planning on being one of those impressive wives you speak of.

I have to admit, once I got over the horror of the situation, I did rather enjoy having someone take care of those mundane tasks for me.

[ray1970]

Well, today is Friday so it's time to pick my winner.

First, let me say that there are no losers here. Sounds like many of you have been blessed to find that special someone to share your life with. And, judging by a few of the photos, some of you are pretty good about scooping up women who are out of your league. [Coffee]



Anyhow, the winner of my little giveaway is MOLON LABE from post #20.


I will shoot him a PM in a bit to make arrangements with him.

Thank you to all who participated and thank you for letting everyone here get to know you a little better.

Best wishes to everyone for a safe and prosperous new year.
[Beer]

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180105/e6ec8aff1d3abaff25036b86e7374942.jpg

[mattiooo]

And, judging by a few of the photos, some of you are pretty good about scooping up women who are out of your league. [Coffee]

LOL

Thanks for having the contest. It was a lot of fun to read all the entries. Congrats to the winner too.

[wctriumph]

Congrats MOLON LABE on the win!

[ray1970]

Oh, and for anyone that's interested, here a little bit about how I met the love of my life.


We met online. Not on a dating site but in some chat rooms on AOL, when dial up was the only internet you could get. We were both divorced and somehow managed to find one another amongst dozens of other divorced people in the same chat room. She was living in Denver and I was living near Houston. We spent months talking in the chat rooms and on the phone getting to know each other. Sending pictures over the internet wasn't really a thing at that time so neither one of us knew what the other looked liked. I finally decided to make the trip to Denver to meet in person. We clicked in real life just like we clicked online. Not too long after my visit she came and visited me in Texas. After that we had a little weekend hookup where we met half way in Amarillo. After that I (we?) made the decision that I would move to Colorado and live with her. About a year and a half later we were married. Just celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary last November. She's the peas to my carrots.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20180106/0614b8d297eea3da1aaa9fe10defead2.jpg

[CS1983]

Congrats ML!

[Bailey Guns]

Congrats to the winner! Great story, good choice.

[BladesNBarrels]

Thanks for the fun thread.
Great to hear the stories.
Congratulations Molon Labe

73053

[Joe_K]

Thanks for doing this Ray! It was fun reading everyone’s stories, both me and my wife shared some laughs reading them. Hope everyone has a great new year!


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